Jamaica Heartbeat of the World

JAMAICAis a dot in the Caribbean Sea.But its impact on the world’s culture is the size of a continent. Contained in a mere 4,244 square miles, is a cultural giant that continues to leave an indelible footprint on the world’s food, music, sport, and literature.

2024/08/05

Vídeo oficial promoción turística - Bolivia

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2024/08/05

Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia

Indonesia, country located off the coast of mainland Southeast Asia in the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is an archipelago that lies across the Equator and spans a distance equivalent to one-eighth of Earth’s circumference. Its islands can be grouped into the Greater Sunda Islands of Sumatra (Sumatera), Java (Jawa), the southern extent of Borneo (Kalimantan), and Celebes (Sulawesi); the Lesser Sunda Islands (Nusa Tenggara) of Bali and a chain of islands that runs eastward through Timor; the Moluccas (Maluku) between Celebes and the island of New Guinea; and the western extent of New Guinea (generally known as Papua). The capital, Jakarta, is located near the northwestern coast of Java. In the early 21st century Indonesia was the most populous country in Southeast Asia and the fourth most populous in the world. Indonesia was formerly known as the Dutch East Indies (or Netherlands East Indies). Although Indonesia did not become the country’s official name until the time of independence, the name was used as early as 1884 by a German geographer; it is thought to derive from the Greek indos, meaning “India,” and nesos, meaning “island.” After a period of occupation by the Japanese (1942–45) during World War II, Indonesia declared its independence from the Netherlands in 1945. Its struggle for independence, however, continued until 1949, when the Dutch officially recognized Indonesian sovereignty. It was not until the United Nations (UN) acknowledged the western segment of New Guinea as part of Indonesia in 1969 that the country took on its present form. The former Portuguese territory of East Timor (Timor-Leste) was incorporated into Indonesia in 1976. Following a UN-organized referendum in 1999, however, East Timor declared its independence and became fully sovereign in 2002. The Indonesian archipelago represents one of the most unusual areas in the world: it encompasses a major juncture of Earth’s tectonic plates, spans two faunal realms, and has for millennia served as a nexus of the peoples and cultures of Oceania and mainland Asia. These factors have created a highly diverse environment and society that sometimes seem united only by susceptibility to seismic and volcanic activity, close proximity to the sea, and a moist, tropical climate. Nevertheless, a centralized government and a common language have provided Indonesia with some sense of unity. Furthermore, in keeping with its role as an economic and cultural crossroads, the country is active in numerous international trade and security organizations, such as ASEAN, OPEC, and the UN. Land Indonesia is the largest country in Southeast Asia, with a maximum dimension from east to west of about 3,200 miles (5,100 km) and an extent from north to south of 1,100 miles (1,800 km). It shares a border with Malaysia in the northern part of Borneo and with Papua New Guinea in the centre of New Guinea. Indonesia is composed of some 17,500 islands, of which more than 7,000 are uninhabited. Almost three-fourths of Indonesia’s area is embraced by Sumatra, Kalimantan, and western New Guinea; Celebes, Java, and the Moluccas account for most of the country’s remaining area. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Relief The major Indonesian islands are characterized by densely forested volcanic mountains in the interior that slope downward to coastal plains covered by thick alluvial swamps that, in turn, dissolve into shallow seas and coral reefs. Beneath this surface the unique and complex physical structure of Indonesia encompasses the junction of three major sections of the Earth’s crust and involves a complicated series of shelves, volcanic mountain chains, and deep-sea trenches. The island of Borneo and the island arc that includes Sumatra, Java, Bali, and the Lesser Sunda chain sit on the Sunda Shelf, a southward extension of the continental mass of Asia. The shelf is bounded on the south and west by deep-sea trenches, such as the Java Trench (about 24,440 feet [7,450 metres] deep at its lowest point), which form the true continental boundary. New Guinea and its adjacent islands, possibly including the island of Halmahera, sit on the Sahul Shelf, which is a northwestern extension of the Australian continental mass; the shelf is bounded to the northeast by a series of oceanic troughs and to the northwest by troughs, a chain of coral reefs, and a series of submarine ridges. The third major unit of the Earth’s crust in Indonesia is an extension of the belt of mountains that forms Japan and the Philippines; the mountains run southward between Borneo and New Guinea and include a series of volcanoes and deep-sea trenches on and around Celebes and the Moluccas. The relation between these three landmasses is not clearly understood. The present land-sea formations are somewhat misleading because the seas that lie on the Sunda and Sahul shelves are shallow and of geologically recent origin; they rest on the continental mass rather than on a true ocean floor. The Sunda Shelf in the vicinity of the Java Sea has relatively low relief, contains several coral reefs, and is not volcanic. The mountain system that stretches along the South China and Celebes seas of this shelf and that marks the outer edge of the continental mass of Asia, however, is an area of strong relief and is one of the most active volcanic zones in the world. The outer (southern) side of the chain of islands from Sumatra through Java and the Lesser Sundas forms the leading edge of the Southeast Asian landmass. It is characterized by active volcanoes, bounded to the south and west by a series of deep-sea trenches. On the inner (northern) side of the islands the volcanic mountains grade into swamps, lowlands, and the shallow Java Sea. This sheltered sea was formed at the close of the Pleistocene Epoch (about 12,000 years ago), and there is evidence of former land bridges, which facilitated the migration of plants and animals from the Asian continent. Islands of the Sunda Shelf Borneo is the third largest island in the world and the main island on the Sunda Shelf. Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in the Southeast Asian archipelago, is not actually in Indonesia. It rises to 13,455 feet (4,101 metres) in the northeastern corner of the island, in the Malaysian state of Sabah. Otherwise, the island’s relief seldom exceeds an elevation of 5,600 feet (1,700 metres), and most of the island lies below 1,000 feet (300 metres). Structural trends are not as well-defined as on adjacent islands, although a broad mountain system (which includes Mount Kinabalu) runs roughly from northeast to southwest. Kalimantan, which constitutes about three-fourths of the island, consists mostly of undulating lowlands, with alluvial swamps near the coast and forest-covered mountains in the deep interior. The Riau archipelago lies to the east of Sumatra, near the southern outlet of the Strait of Malacca. These islands have a granite core and can be considered a physical extension of the Malay Peninsula. With the exception of some highlands in the western and southern regions, the islands of the Riau group generally consist of low-lying swampy terrain. Sumatra spans the Equator, stretching from northwest to southeast for more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km), with a maximum width (including offshore islands) of some 325 miles (525 km). It is flanked on its outer (western) edge by a string of nonvolcanic islands, including Simeulue, Nias, and the Mentawai group, none of which is densely populated. The Sumatran mainland divides into four main physical regions: the narrow coastal plain along the west; the Barisan Mountains, which extend the length of the island close to its western edge and include a number of active volcanoes; an inner nonvolcanic zone of low hills grading down toward the stable platform of the Asian mainland; and the broad alluvial lowland, lying no more than 100 feet (30 metres) above sea level, that constitutes the eastern half of the island. Much of the eastern lowland is a swampy forest that is difficult to penetrate. Java is some 660 miles (1,060 km) long and has a maximum width of about 125 miles (200 km). Its physical divisions are not as distinct as those of Sumatra, because the continental shelf drops sharply to the Indian Ocean in the southern part of the island. Java can be divided into five latitudinal physiographic regions. The first region, a series of limestone platforms, extends along the southern coast; in some areas the platforms form an eroded karst region (i.e., marked by sinks interspersed with abrupt ridges, irregular rocks, caverns, and underground streams) that makes travel and habitation difficult. A mountain belt just to the north, in the western segment of the island, forms the second region; it is partially composed of sediments derived from eroded volcanoes and includes a number of heavily cultivated alluvial basins, especially around the cities of Bandung and Garut. The belt of volcanoes that runs through the centre of the island constitutes the third region; it contains some 50 active cones and nearly 20 volcanoes that have erupted since the turn of the 20th century. A northern alluvial belt, the fourth region, spreads across the Sunda Shelf toward the sea and is extended by delta formations, particularly during volcanic activity. There are deep inland extensions of this alluvial region, which in central Java cut through to the southern coast. Finally, there is a second limestone platform area along the northern coast of Madura (an island off the northeastern coast of Java) and the adjacent section of eastern Java. The many islands of the Lesser Sundas to the east of Java are much smaller, less densely populated, and less developed than Java. The physiography of Bali and Lombok is similar to that of eastern Java. The Lesser Sunda Islands continue through Sumbawa and Flores, narrowing progressively until they appear on a map as a spine of volcanic islands that loops northeast into the Banda Islands. The same volcanic system reappears in northern Celebes. Sumba and Timor form an outer (southern) fringe of nonvolcanic islands that resembles the chain off the western edge of the Sunda Shelf near Sumatra. More … Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/Indonesia

2024/08/04

Invest North Macedonia

Invest North Macedonia is an official Government investment and export promotion agency responsible for attracting foreign investments and supporting the ...

2024/08/04

Wonderful Indonesia EXPLORE FURTHER - Ministry of Tourism Republic of Indonesia

The mission of the Tour Film Festival „On the East Coast of Europe” is to promote the professional tour film production, to stimulate the making of such production and to popularize the leading trends in the field of the modern audio visual culture in unison with the criteria and needs of the business.

2024/08/03

SWI swissinfo.ch

SWI swissinfo.ch is the international unit of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), providing independent reporting on Switzerland. With its ten languages, SWI swissinfo.ch potentially reaches about 75% of the world's population.

2024/08/03

L'Agence de Promotion des Investissements et des Exportations (APIEx) est un dispositif mis en place

L'APIEX est la résultante de trois sociétés d'Etat à savoir : l'Agence béninoise pour la promotion des échanges commerciaux (Abepec), le Guichet unique de ...

2024/08/03

Republic Day of the Republic of Macedonia

North Macedonia, country of the south-central Balkans. It is bordered to the north by Kosovo and Serbia, to the east by Bulgaria, to the south by Greece, and to the west by Albania. The capital is Skopje. The Republic of North Macedonia is located in the northern part of the area traditionally known as Macedonia, a geographical region bounded to the south by the Aegean Sea and the Aliákmon River; to the west by Lakes Prespa and Ohrid, the watershed west of the Crni Drim River, and the Šar Mountains; and to the north by the mountains of the Skopska Crna Gora and the watershed between the Morava and Vardar river basins. The Pirin Mountains mark its eastern edge. The Republic of North Macedonia occupies about two-fifths of the entire geographical region of Macedonia. The rest of the region belongs to Greece and Bulgaria. Most people with a Macedonian identity also refer to the region that constitutes North Macedonia as Vardar Macedonia, the Greek part of Macedonia as Aegean Macedonia, and the Bulgarian part of Macedonia as Pirin Macedonia. In this article, unless otherwise indicated, the name Macedonia refers to the present-day state of the Republic of North Macedonia when discussing geography and history since 1913 and to the larger region as described above when used in earlier historical contexts. The region of Macedonia owes its importance neither to its size nor to its population but rather to its location at a major junction of communication routes—in particular, the great north-south route from the Danube River to the Aegean formed by the valleys of the Morava and Vardar rivers and the ancient east-west trade routes connecting the Black Sea and Istanbul with the Adriatic Sea. Although the majority of the republic’s inhabitants are of Slavic descent and heirs to the Eastern Orthodox tradition of Christianity, 500 years of incorporation into the Ottoman Empire left substantial numbers of other ethnic groups, including Albanians, Turks, Vlachs (Aromani), and Roma (Gypsies). Consequently, Macedonia forms a complex border zone between the major cultural traditions of Europe and Asia. Ottoman control was brought to an end by the Balkan Wars (1912–13), after which Macedonia was divided among Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia. Following World War I, the Serbian segment was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929). After World War II the Serbian part of Macedonia became a constituent republic within the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (later Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). The collapse of Yugoslavia led the Republic of Macedonia to declare its independence on September 17, 1991. The two major problems facing the newly independent Republic of Macedonia were ensuring for its large Albanian minority the rights of full citizenship and gaining international recognition under its constitutional name and membership in international organizations in the face of strong opposition from Greece, which claimed a monopoly on the use of the term Macedonia. (See Researcher’s Note: Macedonia: a contested name.) After years of largely fruitless UN-mediated negotiations regarding the name issue, in June 2018 Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced that an agreement (thereafter known as the Prespa Agreement) had been reached under which the Macedonian republic would be known both domestically and internationally as the Republic of North Macedonia (Macedonian: Severna Makedonija). By January 2019 the Macedonian and Greek legislatures had both approved the measures necessary to pave the way for formal adoption of the new name, which came into effect on February 12, 2019. Land - Relief Geologically, North Macedonia consists mainly of heavily folded ancient metamorphic rocks, which in the west have been eroded to reveal older granites. In the central region are found sedimentary deposits of more recent age. Traversing the country from north to south is a series of active fault lines, along which earthquakes frequently occur. The most severe of these in recent history occurred at Debar in 1967. Skopje was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1963. The mobility of Earth’s crust has also created two tectonic lakes, Prespa and Ohrid, in the southwest and has resulted in the formation of several mineral springs and hot springs. North Macedonia is largely mountainous, with many peaks rising above the tree line at 6,600 feet (2,000 metres) above sea level. The highest elevation is at Mount Korab (9,030 feet, or 2,752 metres) on the Albanian border. Near the Šar Mountains in the northwest, the country is covered with forest. Where this has been cleared (and often in the past overgrazed), the thin skeletal soils have been subjected to dramatic erosion and gullying. There are also several broad and fertile valleys that provide good potential for agriculture. Drainage The greater part of North Macedonia (about nine-tenths of its area) drains southeastward into the Aegean Sea via the Vardar River and its tributaries. Smaller parts of this basin drain into Lake Doiran (Macedonian: Dojran) and into the Aegean via the Strumica and Struma rivers. The remainder of North Macedonia drains northward via the Crni Drim River toward the Adriatic Sea. The convoluted and fractured geology of the area imposes upon many of these rivers erratic courses that frequently drive through narrow and sometimes spectacular gorges. Such formations facilitate the damming of rivers for electric power generation. Climate North Macedonia stands at the junction of two main climatic zones, the Mediterranean and the continental. Periodically, air breaks through mountain barriers to the north and south, bringing dramatically contrasting weather patterns; one example is the cold northerly wind known as the vardarec. Overall, there is a moderate continental climate: temperatures average in the low 30s F (about 0 °C) in January and rise to the high 60s and 70s F (about 20–25 °C) in July. Annual precipitation is relatively light, between about 20 and 28 inches (about 500 and 700 mm). Rainfalls of less than 1 inch (25.4 mm) in the driest months (July–August) rise to nearly 4 inches (about 100 mm) in October–November. Because of differences in local aspect and relief, there may be considerable variation in the climate, the eastern areas tending to have milder winters and hotter, drier summers and the western (more mountainous) regions having more severe winters. Plant and animal life The mountainous northwestern parts of North Macedonia support large areas of forest vegetation. On the lower slopes this is principally deciduous woodland, but conifers grow at elevations as high as 6,600 feet (2,000 metres). Some areas of forest have been cleared to provide rough summer pasture. The forests support a variety of wildlife, including wild pigs, wolves, bears, and lynx. The dry and warm summers result in an abundance of insect life, with species of grasshoppers much in evidence, along with numerous small lizards. More … Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/North-Macedonia

2024/08/02

Welcome to Vanuatu - Vanuatu Tourism Office

We're re-opening on 1st July! Click here for travel information to Vanuatu. Visit Nabanga Pledge to stay Covid-safe during your holiday.

2024/08/01